A man who told police he placed the body of a teenager in a dumpster, a revelation that led to an extraordinary but fruitless search of a suburban Detroit landfill, has been released from prison after less than a year.
“I’m furious. I’m absolutely furious,” said Cierra Milton, the mother of Eastpointe’s Zion Foster, who was 17 when she disappeared a year ago.
Jaylin Brazier was sentenced to at least 23 months in prison in 2022 for lying to police during the investigation. Police believe Zion was the victim of a homicide, but no one has been charged in her death.
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Brazier, 24, was released on parole this week. His last stop in the prison system was a special 90-day program that “focuses on changing negative behavior into socially acceptable behavior,” according to the Department of Corrections website.
“The judge has to allow the prisoner to participate,” spokesman Chris Gautz told The Detroit News. “State law governing the program says that successful completion results in automatic probation.”
Milton said he was not aware of any changes to Brazier’s original sentence.
“He didn’t even serve 23 months” behind bars, he said.
An ‘Operation Zion’ flyer details the search for a Michigan teenager whose body was found in a dumpster. The man who admitted to police that he hid the body has been released on probation.
(AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
A message seeking comment was left Wednesday for Brazier’s attorney.
When he was sentenced last March, Brazier told a judge that Zion suddenly lost consciousness while smoking marijuana. He did not call 911.
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“I don’t know what caused it. I didn’t cause it,” Brazier insisted.
Police learned that her body was placed in a dumpster. The trash eventually landed in a vast landfill. For about five months, a special team of Detroit officials searched the dump but were unable to find Zion’s remains from last year.
Detroit Police Chief James White said the case remains under investigation.
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“Our detectives are constitutionally doing everything they can to talk to him,” White said of Brazier, “investigate him, visit him, to make sure we get what we need to charge that case the way it should be charged… But there are a lot of things I can’t get into right now.”
